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Tag Archives: Underwater

Memorial Day Weekend Brought to You by Social Distancing

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This Memorial Day Weekend was brought to us by the Social Distancing Practices of 2020. I know none of us are living under a rock these days, so we obviously know that social distancing practices are in play for most states. The question is, which state practices what exactly. That makes things difficult. Especially because for our open water diving we cross the state line into Arkansas.

I think everyone has been on the edge of their seats this spring trying to figure out what is happening, what will happen, and how exactly we handle each situation. It’s been challenging both in our daily lives as well in our professional lives. SCUBA diving is no exception. We just have to sit back and wait to see what happens next.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend tends to be the kick off to the SCUBA diving summer season in this part of the country. While we have divers who dive year-round, for the most part here in the midwest, we dive during the summer. We usually have a kick off to the New Year in diving on January 1st where some are brave enough to enter the waters. But Memorial Day Weekend is the kick-off not only to summer but our diving season. Continue reading→

Dive Log – April 2020 Edition

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Social distancing has become the norm. Dining out is only a memory. But scuba diving is a great way to social distance because only a small percentage of people dive. Even fewer dive in cooler weather. That equals perfect Social Distancing.

Today’s dive.

  • Air temp started at 54 degrees F and 62 degrees F when we surfaced after diving.
  • Visibility was 20+ feet.
  • Water temp a cool 56 degrees F.
  • Location: Indian Creek Campground Beaver Lake.

The Sun is out, the skies are blue with threads of white clouds. Continue reading→

Social Distancing and SCUBA Diving

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This is a newer phrase that has been introduced into our vocabulary. It seems like in a matter of weeks we went from life is normal to the new normal. The new normal, whatever that is. It’s been an interesting ride up to this point and will continue to be with the unknown. Wow, Elsa said it right, “Into the Unknown….” Who would have thought she would be able to predict the future?

I’m not going to bore you with much Coronavirus talk because, seriously if you wanted that, just go to Facebook. It is everywhere. Every perspective you could imagine and wish for.

But here’s a thought… I seriously don’t believe that the virus will last underwater. Underwater? How do you breathe underwater? Well, if you are Harry Potter, you take Gillyweed. Continue reading→

It’s the Little Things… Cozumel Trip

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When diving in Cozumel it’s not always about eagle rays, turtles, moray eels, sharks, or even splendid toadfish. Sometimes it’s the littlest creatures. Those that we see and sometimes even photograph. Sometimes we don’t. Some of the smallest creatures can be amazing. Sometimes animals are overlooked not due to their size but due to being plentiful.

There are divers that carry magnifying glasses to find the really small stuff. There are photographers that specialize in macro photography. Continue reading→

Just going with flow… Cozumel Trip

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Or as we call in the SCUBA diving world,  drift diving.
If you have ever been to diving in Cozumel you’ve probably been drift diving. A very simple description would be, you jump into the ocean and the boat follows you and then picks you up when you are done.  Sometimes you just slowly move along kicking just a bit to get around. Other times you just fly.
Yesterday we were treated to unusually mild currents here in Cozumel.  We took advantage of this and dived a couple of reefs that are seldom dived due to strong currents. We hit La Franseta (misspelled) reef first. We dropped in on a pair of eagle rays that gave a couple of our divers quite show. We had just enough current to keep us moving.

Continue reading→

Just Another Manic Monday… Cozumel Trip… Day 9

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Just in the middle of a dream. We were diving Santa Rosa. But we got in on Cedral Reef.
There’s my tribute to the Bangles. I hope they don’t hold it against me.
We had a pretty manic Monday here in Cozumel. Manic for a dive trip to Cozumel that is. We had the Manati loaded with about as many divers as is comfortable having aboard. Once we arrived at our first dive site we missed our reef and had to swim across the sand to get on track. Once we were over the reef we saw one of the largest spot-fin porcupine fish I’ve ever seen.

Continue reading→

I Wear My Dive Mask at Night… Cozumel Trip… Day 8

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I wear my mask at night, too. In staying with our recent musical blog posts themes.  I love night diving.  Especially here in Cozumel.  Whether it diving from the shore at Hotel Cozumel & Resort, from the dock at Cozumel Marine World, or from the boat at Paradise reef. I really enjoy night diving. You may ask, why jump into the ocean and go diving when it’s dark?  First of all, we start the dive when it’s still light. This makes for a much easier transition from daylight to dark. Instead of just jumping off a boat into the darkness.

The real reason for a night dive is the critters.   You are going to see different creatures and a lot of the daytime… Continue reading→

Almost Valentine’s Day… Cozumel Trip… Day 5

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Its Valentine’s Day. Time to celebrate with one of Dean Martins’s favorite songs,  slightly modified for this dive trip.

See the valve with the black shiny thing, that’s an O-ring (O-ring)

Put your Reg on the tank and make sure it’s all tight, save an O-ring (O-ring)

You can swim you can glide but you’d rather dive on the coral (coral) Continue reading→

No Fumar, Dive Boat Courtesy… Cozumel Trip… Day 4

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Another day of diving in the books.  Today we dove Horseshoe and Cedar Pass.

As usual, our group is on the boat at 5 minutes until 8:00 AM ready for our 8 o’clock departure.  We hang around a couple of more minutes to see if anyone else is coming. If you are on our dive boat 8 o’clock means be on the boat by 5 til 8.   We head back to the pier at the dive shop to pick up more divers, they load up and away we go, only to turn around a few hundred yards into our trip to pick up 1 last, late diver.  She gets on board and we are heading to Horseshoe for dive #1 of the day.

Great swim throughs at Horseshoe, a bit of current, few turtles, and 1 turtle that came down from the surface straight at me.  Really cool video and pics, if I would have had my camera. But lucky our friend Doug Lord has the video. Continue reading→